Borgia family
A Spanish-Italian noble family of Aragonese extraction, the Borgias were always regarded as foreigners in Italy and this partially explains their unenviable reputation. The first prominent member of the family and creator of its fortunes was Pope Calixtus III (1455-58). When he became pope several relatives joined him in Rome, along with numerous Catalan fortune-hunters. Calixtus's nephew Rodrigo became Pope Alexander VI and Rodrigo's children included Lucrezia and Cesare. It was the career of Cesare that subsequently made the family name synonymous with greed and treachery.
